海角大神

鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

听The United Nations has called the sprawling and impoverished part of Haiti鈥檚 capital, Port-au-Prince, known as Cit茅 Soleil the most dangerous place on earth. Armed gangs, kidnappings, killings, and garbage-strewn streets have turned this shantytown into the Western Hemisphere鈥檚 most notorious slum. But now the situation is changing 鈥� thanks in part to a group of determined residents who have had enough.

Each Saturday they meet to discuss issues ranging from health care to education and sanitation, from crime to the overall well-being of the community. Then they pick up shovels and brooms and clean up the neighborhood.

鈥淲e鈥檙e proud that this has become the cleanest and safest neighborhood in all of Cit茅 Soleil,鈥� says Luckson Saint-vil, secretary-general of the neighborhood organizing committee La Difference that spans about four square blocks. Gang members feel unwelcome and weapons have been banned, he says.

He says that the residents have also been talking up their success in other parts of Cit茅 Soleil. 鈥淥ur message is simple: It is not your neighborhood that makes you; it is you that makes your neighborhood.鈥�

Many of the 300,000 or so residents of Cit茅 Soleil still do not have basic services like plumbing and electricity. But the message of self-help being spread by the members of La Difference, according to Mr. Saint-vil, has begun to take hold. 鈥淥ther neighborhoods,鈥� he says, 鈥渁re beginning to pay attention and envy what we have done.鈥�